Chapter 48
48
After the successful trial run of the Christmas train, there was nothing more for Libby to do. Which left her free to finally return to her chocolate making and, in truth, she was not only excited about that but also about being back in Ethan’s company once more.
‘I hope this still is okay,’ she said to him, turning up at the old school the following morning with a large box in her hands and a car full of her equipment. ‘I know you’re busy getting ready for the grand opening tonight.’
‘It’s fine,’ replied Ethan, taking the box from her.
‘Thank goodness for that,’ she told him. ‘Can I start bringing the rest of my stuff in now because we can barely move in our place?’
‘Sure,’ he told her.
Once everything was back inside, it took her the rest of the morning to set everything up so that it was ready to use. She glanced around the clean and tidy kitchen and tried not to grimace with guilt over how she had filled it with heavy smoke the last time she had prepared her chocolate in there.
It was almost lunchtime when she was finally finished.
Ethan was sitting at the new breakfast bar, studying what looked like an extremely technical plan on his laptop.
‘Hey,’ she said, peering over his shoulder. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s the plan of the circuit breakers and timer switches for the lighting,’ he told her. ‘Fingers crossed it all works.’
‘It worked fine last night,’ she reminded him.
He blew out a sigh. ‘Yeah, I know.’
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.
‘It just means so much to Grandad,’ Ethan told her. ‘He’s got this other big dream about seeing the train on Christmas Eve in the snow! How am I going to manage that?’
‘Well, if Dodgy Del can’t, then nobody can,’ she joked, before getting serious once more. ‘Eddie loved the train. He told me so last night. You’ve done it. You’ve achieved his dream.’
‘Yeah. I guess.’ He looked up at her suddenly with clear blue eyes. ‘And what’s your dream?’
She gave a start. ‘Me?’ Libby shrugged her shoulders. ‘I guess to have my own chocolate shop. A place of my own to sell whatever I like. Talking of which, I’ve got something to show you.’
Feeling rather proud, she led him over to reveal her newest idea. She had seen the chocolate moulds online and hadn’t been able to stop herself from buying them. She had tested them out at home the previous evening.
‘Ta da!’ she said, with a flourish as she brought out the box of ready-made shapes.
‘It’s a chocolate train!’ exclaimed Ethan, picking it up. ‘Wow.’
He turned the chocolate over in his hands, looking down at in wonder.
‘Isn’t it great?’ she said. ‘I’ve got little carriages too,’ she carried on, reaching over to show him the empty moulds.
‘This is amazing, Libs,’ he told her. ‘You’re going to sell loads.’
‘I hope so,’ she replied. ‘I mean, there isn’t that much room in Platform 1, but even if I just sell one train, I’ll be happy.’
Ethan frowned. ‘So how are you going to make a profit or sell as many chocolates as you need to?’ he asked.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she told him briskly, even though it had been a worry at the back of her mind. ‘Anyway, I’m making chocolate again. That’s all that matters.’
He looked around at the kitchen. ‘I guess all this is a far cry from your heady nights away with the airline crew,’ he said.
She shook her head. ‘Actually, I used to be what they call a “slam clicker” on layovers.’
‘A what?’ he asked.
‘It means I used to shut my hotel door, clicked the lock and didn’t see my fellow crew members until we showed up to fly again the following day,’ she told him. ‘Layovers were my time for myself. I used to read up on chocolate or explore the local food scene.’ She looked up at him. ‘What about you? I heard you led a pretty wild nightlife whilst you were away all those years.’
‘It meant nothing to me,’ he told her. ‘It was all so frivolous and fake.’ He paused before carrying on, ‘Unlike you, Mrs Connolly. You were the real deal.’
She took a sharp intake of breath. ‘So any near Mrs since then?’ she quipped, trying to keep the atmosphere light.
He smiled. ‘Many,’ he replied. ‘But nobody else came close to making me hear wedding bells.’
She raised a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Don’t you mean hearing a synthetic organ in an Elvis chapel?’ she said, with a grin.
‘Actually I found it very romantic,’ he said.
She laughed. ‘We were both drunk!’
But Ethan wasn’t laughing. ‘I wasn’t that drunk,’ he told her, shaking his head.
He took a step forward until their bodies were almost touching.
‘Ethan,’ she whispered, staring up at the intensity in his eyes.
He didn’t need to tell her what he was thinking. She knew exactly what he wanted. And she wanted it too.
She couldn’t stop herself from reaching up to draw him closer to her. Her hands automatically crept around his shoulders and up to his head to draw his down to hers.
She heard him groan briefly before dropping his lips onto hers and then she was lost in time. Everything stood still and it was just them. She was back in his arms at last. Back where she had always wanted to be.
She felt his hands on her back, pulling her against him so that there was no space between them at all. It felt so right, as his kiss deepened. She felt whole again, as if the other half of her that had been missing for so long was finally complete once more.
At some point, in a daze, she felt him pull back slightly.
‘Libby,’ he whispered before stepping away from her and running a hand through his hair. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.’
‘Why not?’ she blurted out.
‘Because this doesn’t end well for us,’ he told her. ‘Because no relationship of mine ends in a happy ever after, however much I care for you. It’s all fake and lies.’
‘You think that kiss was fake?’ she asked, hurt and confused. ‘Did it feel fake to you?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘And it never did. But…’
Libby stood still, holding her breath and waiting for him to pull her close once more. She silently willed him to trust her and not the cynicism that his mum had shown him throughout his childhood.
But instead, he turned his back on her, pulling out his phone. ‘I’ve got quite a bit to do before the first train run later,’ he said. ‘I’ll see you on the platform tonight?’
She nodded, even though he was halfway across the lounge by now.
He was running away again, she thought, thinking back to when he had told her about his mum’s cheating.
As she watched him leave, she wondered whether he was right. Perhaps it had been a mistake for them both to kiss. So why did she want nothing more than to run back into his arms?